Moneyworks Named Winner of Fourth Annual Core Innovators Challenge

Core Innovation Capital (Core) today named Moneyworks as the winner of the fourth annual Core Innovators Challenge, the nation’s largest and most prestigious competition for technologies serving the Emerging Middle Class. Moneyworks was chosen from amongst four finalists by a live vote of hundreds of financial services executives and innovators at EMERGE: The Forum on Consumer Financial Services Innovation,hosted by the Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI) and SourceMedia.

Moneyworks helps consumers pay down debt and optimize their overall financial health by managing money on their behalf. The product automatically pays all of a user’s bills and debts, so that the user can focus on controlling discretionary spending. The Moneyworks app also provides alerts based on a user’s location to proactively influence behavior to keep spending on track. As the 2014 Core Innovators Challenge winner, Moneyworks will receive $10,000 in prize money.

"Congratulations to Moneyworks and their important new tool for helping members of the Emerging Middle Class better manage money and their overall financial health,” said Arjan Schütte, founder and managing partner at Core. “Mobile personal finance management joins Bitcoin, Small Data, and alternative lending for SMBs as leading trends that best represent the growing sophistication of companies competing in this space.”

The other finalists in the fourth annual Core Innovators Challenge finalists included:

- Blossom improves the experience for investing, managing, and cashing out of digital currencies like Bitcoin. Blossom's Bitcoin by Mobile service allows people interested in digital currency to buy Bitcoin in seconds, without entering any personal financial details, by charging the purchase to their mobile phone bill.

- Dealstruck is the only peer-to-peer lending platform for small-to-midsize businesses that offers asset-based term loans and working capital lines of credit, often at a lower interest rate than competitors. The company leverages flexible underwriting features to help borrowers reach funding goals quickly and easily, as well as allowing investors the freedom to choose specific investments.

- Entrepreneurial Finance Labs (EFL) applies psychometrics to credit scoring in emerging markets to highlight the power of Small Data in credit. Unlike other credit innovations that leverage non-traditional data sources like social networks and call detail records, EFL's methodology requires only an introductory reading level, not a computer or a mobile phone. Today, EFL operates across Latin America, Africa, and South Asia.

The 80 million underserved Americans that earn more than one trillion dollars in annual income make up the Emerging Middle Class. Core is an Impact Alignment venture fund investing in entrepreneurs that serve the Emerging Middle Class by applying free-market solutions to the world’s most demanding social challenges.

About EMERGE: The Forum on Consumer Financial Services Innovation

EMERGE brings together over 700 leaders and innovators transforming the financial services industry—bank and credit union executives, federal and state policymakers, technology entrepreneurs, nonprofit providers, consumer advocates, retailers, and investors. Through case studies, interactive sessions, and tracks organized around specific consumer behaviors, the EMERGE agenda brings consumer data and stories to life. With a proven history of building new connections and spotlighting the most innovative trends, attendees get the latest information and the cutting-edge strategies they need to build profitable solutions that actively contribute to the financial health of consumers. To register, visit http://www.americanbanker.com/conferences/cfsi/ and join the conversation at #EMERGECFSI.

To learn more about EMERGE sponsored by MasterCard, please visit: http://www.americanbanker.com/conferences/cfsi/

About Core Innovation Capital

Core Innovation Capital is a leading investor in financial technologies serving the Emerging Middle Class, the 80 million Americans that generate over $1 trillion in annual income and spend more than $89 billion in fees and interest on financial services. Core partners with proven entrepreneurs and invests in disruptive financial technologies that measurably improve the lives of the Emerging Middle Class. The Core Impact Alignment investment thesis leverages social impact to create above-market financial return. 

For more information about Core Innovation Capital, please visit: http://www.corevc.com/

Or follow Core Innovation Capital @CoreEMC